If You're Free
I'm baking blueberry bread, and juno said she would be preparing something extra special. I have some fine bottles of Portuguese wine that I've been meaning to uncork. And this is a fine time.
Can't wait to relax with everybody!
posted by jm at 3:25 AM
47 Comments:
Sounds lovely. I love front porches. I would bring my favorite "Asparagus/Goat Cheese/Bacon Tart" which is beyond yummy. But if anybody is vegetarian, I can leave off the bacon. It would go very nicely with a Washington state white wine.
Wistful...wish I was there.
Off-topic: I haven't heard from my friend since fired off the e-mail. She's probably irked. Those little crabs can get SO defensive...their life may be in the toilet, but they'll defend their behavior till the death.
Yes, a really great front porch w/optional screens, windows is a wonderful space.
Casey, did you have a chance to wander around the Chief Architect website? There is a site called Chieftalk where users do the question & answer thing. There are lots of nifty downloads for furniture, cabinets, plants . . . And the POVray tool for making things look 3D is incredible!
Off-topic: I haven't heard from my friend since fired off the e-mail. She's probably irked. Those little crabs can get SO defensive...their life may be in the toilet, but they'll defend their behavior till the death.
LOL!!! Sometimes ya just have to wait 'till they get done processing or sulking . . . :-)
Yes, I did check out that site...Very cool and looks to be user-friendly. A lot CAD design programs aren't.
But if truth be told, my Sim games gives all the 3D tools I need to create houses. Only thing is I couldn't print a floorplan.
But, in real life, I've already found the little house I wish I could have:
http://www.notsobighouse.com/global/images/plans/elegant.jpg
I love the Not-so-big houses because of they are small but beautifully crafted. This little house only has one room upstairs -- a perfect studio/computer room for me! I also love the incredible two story living room and the u-shaped stairs with huge windows and light pouring in and on the side -- bookshelves! A nice little kitchen/dining room and two good-sized bedrooms. sigh. want. this. house.
Oh, do leave the bacon on, dear. Sounds lovely! I'm still mulling over the entrees but some chai caramel ice cream sounds about right for afters with coffee...:)
ooooh, chair caramel ice cream, yummy! I love chai! And one of the best ice creams I've ever made was Earl Grey ice cream...you infuse hot (but not boiling) milk with Earl Grey and then make an custard. Cool it and then make ice cream. So good.
Asparagus Tart -- from Fine Cooking
Fry 4-5 pieces of bacon, drain, and crumble into little bits. Leave about two tbspn of bacon grease in pan. Cut asparagus into 1-1/2" pieces (I parboiled them for about two minutes cuz I think asparagus needs just a bit more cooking than everyone else gives it), then saute in bacon grease about 3-4 minutes. This was so good, I ate about half of them at this point.
Take thawed puff pastry and make rectangular tart. Take 6 oz. of creamy goat cheese and crumble over tart. Sprinkle asparagus and bacon over top.
The only thing I can't remember off the top of my head is the temp of the oven. So check puff pastry package. Then cook 15-20 minutes (watch it, it may be less) till golden brown and goat cheese is melted.
Yummm.
c-h-a-i ice cream...not chair.
I'm thinking ahead of myself too much.
I dreamt about houses last night. This is strange. One part was...there were many rooms and several people . Each room had no one underneath, so if they wanted to have sex, they wouldn't bother anyone trying to sleep or feel inhibited...?....interpretations oh wise ones?
Bt all means, casey, leave the bacon on! Shakin' with the bacon'! I'm a veg but I'm not a madman. I eat meat at parties. I want to be able to digest it. When traveling in foreign exotic places it's good to be able to eat everything they serve you, in the mountain villages and the like.
Washington State wine? Never had it? Please do bring some. I'd love to try it. Bet it's good. I think the water makes a difference.
Juno!!!! Chai cramel ice cream. How imaginative! Great idea for the summer night.
And casey, I think it was a stroke of genius to send those e-mails. It was heavy. Sometimes they resent one on one advice and there are other interferences, but this will help. And it's completely in keeping with the 11th house group effort. No personal issues. Very good idea. The fact that she's quiet is a great sign. She's absorbing.
Thanks for the recipe, I'll be saving that :)
Don't really have a recipe for the ice cream, I did several variations at the last restaurant I worked at, simply substitute chai concentrate for about half the milk in the given recipie (generally a french vanilla custard ice cream, can also make an outrageous custard or caramel creme), and then add sugar to more concentrate and reduce like hell for the 'sauce' Adding cream, etc like a caramel sauce. One of the best compliments I ever got from one of my chefs/teachers was that I could combine the oddest things and make something new and yummy...
Earl grey ice cream ...mmmmm...I remember my first experience with green tea ice cream (actually anything japanese), I was a 'roadie' for a ceramic artist and after setting up her show, she took me to a place in SF called (very mundanely) House of Teriyaki. The place was packed with Japanese, we were the only caucasians there. She got mildly insulted that the waitress offered us forks so she refused them...I had to learn right then how to use chopsticks because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to eat a bite LOL...Many other new things that nite like saki, sushi...still some of the best japanese food I've ever had...
I've decided to wear a loose elastic-waisted skirt(My red one, I think) Sat night since I get the distinct feeling I will be overeating!
My Leo and I once went to a traditional Japanese restaurant and it was an experience. He had a Saturn in Sagittarius and had some resevations about exotic food earlier in his life, but by then, he was free.
His bowl had somewhat slippery seafood things in it and some blossoms of something or other, nothing recognizable, but it was delicious. We were delerious for awhile afterword. Very very unusual but perfect for highly Uranian people.
Hey if I have too much WA state wine can I crash in the bed at the end of the porch there, looks really comfy!:)
I'm a house freak too. That one, casey, looks so unpretentious and natural. Is that you?
I have a small cedar covered town house next to wild land with animals in preserved land in the city. No development into perpetuity. Very nice. I like the foxes especially.
It's interesting to see the rabbits, though. They are thriving in this big city and at night they hang around the downtown pedestrian mall, hopping on grassy knolls, and watching all the people. Having a ball. City late night rabbits. They must be living gloriously an greens from alleys.
My thought exactly Juno!!!! I was just about to post that. We'll have to share it!
MMM Foxes...one of my first introductions to WA this time around was a trip to the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound. We were at a big sculpture park when two huge siver foxesa appeared and began playing and chasing each other around the grounds, one was black and silver, one was chocolate and silver. They had no fear of us, they let us get very close and they played aroiund us... very magical creatures, foxes.
My telepathic Aquarian friend and I were connected by foxes. They always came running through when we were together outside. In the early morning wee hours when crossing town after one of our all nighters, I would invariably see one running across the street.
When either of us encountered one, we would call.
I never could decide on the symbolism. Any ideas? Maybe joe knows.
This friend who I wrote the article about...I hadn't talked to him in over a year. About a week after the post...rrrrrring!....you guessed it.
Also, he has a packed Virgo 8th house(Moon included), excellent for healing. The night he called I was in physical agony. After a few shouting bouts, and several 'fuck'em all' exclamations, I was infinitely improved.
(Pardon my Italian). He's an angel.
Virgo can be great, as we enter the Virgo/Pisces lunation. Tseka knows this one intimately.
Oh jm! what a sumptuous setting!
Anything or nothing to eat would be delicious in such a place. Since i will be shopping at the local organic farmer's market Saturday mornining,i will bring fresh armenian cucumbers and heritage tomatoes perhaps baby spinach and fresh basil maybe we can prevail upon Neith for some fresh raspberries for a vinegrette to add to the salad??
Oh, Oh, oh. I'm in heaven, tseka. I'm not sure I'm familiar with the Armenian cucumber. It sounds like it has small seeds. I have an herb garden, so we can make a real Mediterranean salad with your tomatoes, basil, and cucumbers, and neith's vinegarette.
I also hope to prevail upon neith to bring some soft shawls in case the evening gets cool.
Oh, I forgot to mention the lightening bugs. I hope they're out.
jm, perhaps a liberating dream? No need for inhibitions.
Aren't foxes a manifestation of the Trickster? Although they sound like spirit guides, like my herons. I have never seen a fox in the wild. I have seen a coyote near the reservoir/park I drive through a lot. And before they widened the road, there used to be a lot of bunnies that would come out to feed along the verge in the evenings.
and tseka? yummmmmm. Also my friend was particularly interested in your advice the other evening. Anybody interested needs to go back to neith's to read her response. Interestingly, her most antagonistic reflex was against MY advice since I only hear what I want to hear.
Oh, I forgot to mention the lightening bugs. I hope they're out.
Lightening bugs?! wonderful!! Sure, I'll bring the afghan I knit for my S/O from a pile of varying hues of hand spun yarns from about 10 yrs of spinning odds & ends. He said he wanted it long enough to cover him from head to toe plus a foot or so! When i get hold of a camera, that one item I want to share . . . it was sooo much fun to make, simple wavy pattern,& lots of colors!!
How about some icebox size orange fleshed watermelons?! Maybe some peppers too . . . :-)
Casey, yes, on the release of inhibitions. I think it has to do with merging with others since there were many couples and they all wanted to 'do it' freely. Also the Aquarian detachment 'coupled' with the merging since the rooms were separate.
Excellent. I always go on the feeling surrounding the scenario, and it was good in this case, although there was one fear part, but I can't remember it now.
But I think it's about letting myself go.
Interesting about tseka's advice. With t's Aquarius rising, her advice was the most detached and didn't demand guilt and personal struggle, and I think this is what your friend felt safe with, since the problem is close and demanding relationships. And her Aquarius that is inaccessible came to her through tseka. Tseka's advice was the most generous, I think.
Foxes are fast and come out from nowhere. They are nocturnal I believe. That makes sense about the trickster. The cleverness, surprise factor, suddenness, the mental zing they arouse. They also seem to travel solo. They are very exciting to see, and they never seem to arouse pity, like some hapless creatures can, or rage, as when racoons come into your house and tear it up!
PEPPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH please!!!!!!
The colors we eat are everything. I eat a lot of purple. Orange is vitality, joy, and all of that. Just what the cosmic nutritionist ordered.
Speaking of new moon in Virgo.
In my dream, I think the separate rooms were our separate blogs. We merge, then go back to ourselves, then over to merge someplace else, and one on one occurs within the group. I think this is ideal.
Neith and I have the Aquarius rising composite, but 8th house and scorpio planets showing the deep connections. The Aquarius is the overall, though, and the survival of the group is paramount.
I've discovered the secret to staying current with y'all: the good old refresh button. Otherwise, the blog doesn't update or change, so I miss out.
A local ice cream company makes a flavor called "Norwegian Chai" that I simply can't get enough of. It's a popular flavor so they always have it at least 2 days a week.
For you, jm, the Kitsune page:
http://www.coyotes.org/kitsune/kitsune.html
Hey, I'll bring my homemade sauerkraut. And some of my homemade root beer that I've been playing around with. And some kombucha for Juno who mentioned it once on someone's blog.
what's Norwegian about chai? though all chai is yummy.
I mentioned to my carpoolee about something we blogged today and she said, "do you get ANY work done? all you do is blog." And I tried to explain that we post a comment, go away, and come back to see if anybody's responded to it. Doesn't take that much time. And I got a lot of work done today.
And, joe, yes, now I remember. Good link. Fox is big in Chinese lore too -- the fox spirit is supposed to be a mischievous, sometimes evil woman. Evil because they do not follow the patriarchally dictated path. Women were supposed to be submissive.
Joe! Excellent! You're connected now. Are you ready?
You are a true gentleman and scholar. Thanks for the link. I'll read it in a bit and I'm ecxcited, since I've been thinking about this forever.
And the additions to our dinner. What a feast it will be!
do you get ANY work done? all you do is blog."
I have a lot to say about this. Post coming.
I bet the solo factor with the fox is part of the evil. Any creature not in bondage is probably a threat. What's fascinating to me is the almost androgynous nature of the fox. A strange femininity. That would bother those Chinese patriarchs.
The stealthiness too. Foxes have nerve.
They sound like Mercury types.
Joe, that link is fantastic! Thank you so so much. You are a master of connection. I'm going to take my time and svaor this.
Casey, beats me about the Norwegian Chai ice cream. It tastes like a subtly spicy black chai with cardmom and other spices. If you can find Honest Tea, in the Kashmiri Chai flavor, that's what it tastes like.
Heh, jm, I just typed "kitsune" into a search engine and that was the first option. :o) Nothing masterful about it, really. Just determination.
Oh, yes, of course.
Nothing masterful about it, really. Just determination.
heh,heh . . . that's a good Scorpio trait!! I don't consider myself any brighter than most but determined & tenacious . . . yah, I'll own that!!!
"How about some icebox size orange fleshed watermelons?!"
Neith,
"The melons look cool
flecked with mud
from the morning dew."
Basho
Neith, this is a good place to share all the little treasures and trinkets of information that I collect as I plumb the mysteries of life, death and the Internet. I like knowing things no one else knows, or cares to know. This is a Scorpio trait, I guess. :o)
Joe!
I was just catching up in the post "now...this is a shoe" and the part you wrote about Katrina:
"I would add, Greek katharsis, from kathairein, "to purge," from καθαρος (katharos, "pure."
In Irish Gaelic, the name becomes Catríona and also Caitlín. In Russian and Ukrainian, it becomes Kateryna, Ekaterina, and Yekaterina. In Danish and Norwegian, it's Karen. In Finnish and Estonian, it's Katariina. And so on."
OMG, that chimed with me big time because my real name is Karin (norwegian AND danish background) and all this whole bad past year for me began exactly when Katrina hit (and I'm not even in N.O.). And it has been a complete year of purging and purifying.
goosebumps.
How's about a mushroom risotto? I could bring the porcinis that I picked last fall from the local woods...And we have blackberries here that can't be beat...
My husband thinks I'm on this thing blogging 24/7...really, he just happens to walk by every time I've decided to sit for a mo and catch up..
Herons *smile*.My father's favorite birds were great blue herons. He grew up just outside the floodplains of the Illinois river and the wooded corridor there used to be covered with heron rookeries. Might be again, after the big midwest floods in '93, the state bought back a lot of the flooded land from farmers and it is all wildlife sanctuary now. My mom always thought maybe my dad (who died in'92) had something to do with that:). They now are in a small graveyard on a hill( big indian mound...)overlooking this place. My mom had a heron put on his gravestone...
Thank you for the info on foxes...
OK more fox stuff, native totem:
The medicine of the fox is extreme cleverness not trickster for it brings us the gift of cleverness and subtlety, it slips out quitely.
Of course there is the negative of deception and too clever.
In the I Ching it is the symbol of the one who can cross the river, OR get its tail wet or get muddy waiting too long etc.
But the Fox is the one who gets to cross the Great River.
It is most excellent medicine (power)
I have some cathcing up with you all as since my last post i have had three small medical crises to attend to all is well, now for some of that rest Neith was speaking of, so nice to relax in all of your presence. My thanks to all of you for sharing so much of your goodness and wellness.
Casey, i have the not so big house books, have drooled over several including yours. It's a good one
OMG wrapped up with friends in a multi-hued handspun afghan made by one of these, watching lightning bugs sipping rootbeer bu another, i'm done for. This is too much wonddrful.
Joe the fox stories are wonderful i have been enjoying reading them thank you so much for posting that site.
Shoot!!! I missed so much! tseka, it truly IS wonderful.
The med crises are normal with SN in Virgo. Thanks be they were small. More on that later and the transcendence of the body with Pisces. What a good thing you have such healing knowledge.
YES!!!!!!!Mushrooms from the woods. Mushrooms give power and we need some, of the right kind.
Huclkeberries, blackberries, and blueberries are the stuff of magic for me.
Yes, I think cleverness is the fox. Nimbleness too. For me, being 5 feet tall and not always so agreeable, this is vital.
Good reminder about the I Ching. Of course. He comes up for me often.
BTW, juno, as much as I love your hus, I don't think we get enough of you at all. Too much time on the blogs? Hell no!
I haven't gotten there yet! The fox stories.
OMG! What a pleasurable night ahead of me. This is beyond even my imagination.
Casey, I agree, there's a lot to be goosebumped about when it comes to that name. It's a powerful name or else there wouldn't be so many variations of it all over the world.
Interestingly, Jupiter entered my natal sign (Scorpio) last Oct 25th, just when I had enough of some neighbors who were harassing us. After putting up with it for much too long (about 5 years) in hopes that they'd get bored and pick on someone else, I fought back: I filed a complaint with the city and boy did that knock their socks off. I guess Jupiter increased my Scorpio defense mechanisms because I was ruthless in going after them. of course, I didn't realize the Jupiter effect until recently.
The harassers are moving at the end of this month. :o) To quote Nelson Muntz: Ha ha!
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